Geometric mechanics

In this paper we formulate a geometric theory of nonlinear thermoelasticity that can be used to calculate the time evolution of the temperature and thermal stress fields in a nonlinear elastic body. In particular, this formulation can be used to calculate residual thermal stresses. In this theory the material manifold (natural stress-free configuration of the body) is a Riemannian manifold with a temperature-dependent metric. Evolution of the geometry of the material manifold is governed by a generalized heat equation.

The geometric formulation of continuum mechanics provides a powerful approach to understand and solve problems in anelasticity where an elastic deformation is combined with a non-elastic component arising from defects, thermal stresses, growth effects, or other effects leading to residual stresses. The central idea is to assume that the material manifold, prescribing the reference configuration for a body, has an intrinsic, non-Euclidean, geometric structure. Residual stresses then naturally arise when this configuration is mapped into Euclidean space.

We discuss the relevance of non-metricity in a metric-affine manifold (a manifold equipped with a connection and a metric) and the nonlinear mechanics of distributed point defects. We describe a geometric framework in which one can calculate analytically the residual stress field of nonlinear elastic solids with distributed point defects. In particular, we use Cartan's machinery of moving frames and construct the material manifold of a finite ball with a spherically-symmetric distribution of point defects.

I am looking for a new Ph.D. student to work on discretization of nonlinear elasticity using geometric and topological ideas. Requirements for this position are a strong background in solid mechanics and some background in differential geometry and analysis. If interested please email me your CV.

In this paper, we present a geometric discretization scheme for incompressible linearized elasticity. We use ideas from discrete exterior calculus (DEC) to write the action for a discretized elastic body modeled by a simplicial complex. After characterizing the configuration manifold of volume-preserving discrete deformations, we use Hamilton's principle on this configuration manifold. The discrete Euler-Lagrange equations are obtained without using Lagrange multipliers.

In the theory of dislocations, the Burgers vector is usually defined by referring to a crystal structure. Using the notion of affine development of curves on a differential manifold with a connection, we give a differential geometric definition of the Burgers vector directly in the continuum setting, without making use of an underlying crystal structure.